Trade union Cosatu has called for a day of civil disobedience on November 30 in protest against the e-tolling of Gauteng's highways. A public hearing in Pretoria was told that Cosatu believes government has taken its decision to go ahead with e-tolling.  Cosatu’s Patrick Craven told Radio Islam that he agrees with Zwelinzima Vavi who yesterday said that this is a farce, and government wants to make it seem that they are giving the public a chance to have a say, but that the decision is already made for the tolls to go ahead. He added that he hoped the three public meetings called would at long last give the public a chance to have their say if weather we have to pay to travel on the road of the province. By he said as it turns out that people who raised objections were told that was not on the agenda of the meeting, and the meeting would be on discussion of whether the tolls would cost 40 cents of 60 cents. It comes as the government said that the decision on the e-tolls were already taken by cabinet, and thus all discussion about whether we needed the tolls were closed.

Craven said that it is understandable that this made some people very angry, and it has made Cosatu more determined to now take the campaign to the streets. He pointed out that they have warned about this fact and would now unfortunately have to proceed. Cosatu’s Patrick Craven said that the union has set the date on the 30th of November to be kicked off. He said they haven’t worked out the specific details, but they intend to have big street demonstrations and other demonstrations at the tolls gantries themselves. He believes this will have a big impact given their huge support base. On the point that, the longer government draws this out, the more the resistance will become dwindle, Patrick said that he’s experience is just the opposite. He added that they get the impression that resistance is building up, partly because of the government’s approach to this. He argues that if the meeting that took place this week was a frank and open argument, then he could see support against the tolls diminishing. But he commented that, “the fact that the government tried to dodge having the argument about the tolls at all, and tried to divert it on the completely irrelevant argument as to what the precise amount the tolls should be, has made people more angry.” Though he added that the union will decide upon the methods of protest, he argues that the government’s action has in fact increased support for people who oppose the tolls. Patrick also reminded people that the date of the protest is the 30th of November 2012. He said that the methods of demonstrations would be decided in a day or two. Radio Islam will, inshALLAH, bring you more details on the protests against the tolls.